Friday, December 18, 2009

Help!!

I've been really bugged lately by my lack of awesome-wife cooking skills. :( I feel like I can't look at the ingredients we have and make something out of it. So, whenever I do want to make something cool or delicious or just different than the usual, I have found that I have to spend time, and more importantly, MONEY to go to the store to buy just three or four ingredients. It gets really expensive going to the store two or three times a week for just a couple of ingredients each time. Don't get me wrong, I like making cool and delicious meals but I can't do that every night...

So, here is my question (directed to anyone and everyone who is good at cooking): how do you all do it? Where do you get your ideas? I've looked in several cookbooks but most of them require ingredients that I just don't have (as mentioned before). Do you all just stock up on random ingredients? Or do you have cookbooks that have recipes that are more simple? Or are you all just geniuses and mix together what you have to make a masterpiece?

I'm starting to feel like I'm never going to get good at cooking. And poor Ben has to suffer through my hardcore lack of said skills.

Does anyone wanna teach me? Lol or alteast let me copy some recipes? How about a recipe exchange in the near future, eh? Haha help!!

10 comments:

Riki Lee said...

I often feel the same way because I just don't love to cook anyway. And the worst part for me is the menu planning. But I've found that if you plan a menu ahead of time, cooking is much more enjoyable. I like to plan a menu for three or four weeks at a time because then I feel like I'm only doing it once a month. :) Then I go buy all the ingredients for the entire month, other than the perishables, of course. I buy the perishables at the beginning of each week. It is helpful to build up your food storage so that you have a variety on hand. I also keep a list of recipes that I almost always already have all the ingredients for, in the case that I fail to plan a menu. If you like to use a crockpot, I have the "101 things to do with a slow cooker" recipe book, and a lot of those have things that I usually already have on hand. I also hate that it seems to cost more money to cook well. Those are just some ideas. Good luck.

K'Lyn Lyman said...

MOM to the rescue! Use the "ward cookbooks" that you have. They are done by cooks who don't use a lot of fancy ingredients and the food is still great. Also only cook 3 times a week, and the rest of the time eat leftovers. A little planning goes a long way. Have on hand stuff for sandwiches and salads, so if you con't feel like cooking one night, you still have something to eat. Have a few 3 ingredient standby's that are easy to cook. Have those at least once a week. Remember breakfast is always good at night! Try something new once in a while just for variety. Most of all, call MOM for recipes!
Love ya!

Jami Key said...

I know how you feel Libby. The best thing for me were recipe blogs. There are alot of moms online who cook with REAL ingredients that you already have in your kitchen. You'll start to find standard ingredients to keep stocked up on that you can use alot and a few items that you buy once and they last for a long time. Sadie has some great links on her cooking blog.

Clint & Danny said...

I know how you feel, i have noticed the longer i have been married i dont go to the groccery store as often because just like you said you are going a few times a week for stupid things like chicken stock or parsley or noodles. Things you dont walk down an isle & think you will need. I suggest having your mom make a book with all of your favorite dishes. That will help a ton, i find myself calling my mom all the time for recipes. We have all been in your shoes your definately not alone.

Sadie said...

I didn't really get into cooking until after I had kids. When it was just the 2 of us, it was too hard to find recipes that didn't feed an army and that we both liked. Plus we were both way busy. Just start small. Plan out 3 meals a week that aren't too fancy and go from there. You'll find that the more you do it, the easier it gets and most importantly the funner it gets. One of my favorite recipe blogs that has easy dishes with not many fancy ingredients is www.realmomkitchen.com It's on my recipe blog. Feel free to call me anytime for easy recipes. I have a pile up my sleeve.

Amy said...

I still struggle with this so I'm no help! :D

Sarah B said...

You have had some great advice so far, so the only thing I would say was to sit down on a Sunday afternoon and look at your calendar for the upcoming week. See what nights you will both be home and be needing a meal. Then make a plan. We will be eating ____ this day, ____ this day, ______this day, etc... Then go to the store ONE time maximum per week for the items you will need to make the meals you have planned. Going to the store more than once a week gets unnecessarily expensive. Make it a challenge. If you find that you've forgotten something at the store, make do. Find something else to make. So, if you sit down and plan a few meals for the week, the work is already done and you know what is going on, food-wise, for the week. The next step could be to start doing some prep the night before...like, if you need 1 pound of ground up hamburger for tomorrows meal, fry it up the night before, so that step is already done when you need to prepare the meal. Hey, here's an idea!...Assign one night a week to Ben! Or assign one night a week that you cook together. Sorry this got long. Love ya.

Libby said...

Wow, that was very helpful! Thank you all!!

Benjamin said...

Ramen sounds like a good idea...(This isn't Ben)

Matt and Vicki said...

Most recipes use ingredients that I have never even heard of. I found you do have to put out more money than you want initially to buy all the different spices, but they last a LONG time. Unless you cook all the time for large amounts of people, a small bottle of seasoning will go a long way.